Oct 21, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers center Walker Kessler (14) dunks the ball against the Golden State Warriors in the first half at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
There was a lot of anticipation surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers’ Opening Night contest against the Golden State Warriors. One of the biggest stories was the debut of center Walker Kessler, whom the Lakers gave up a lot of draft capital to acquire from the Utah Jazz.
Kessler’s first regular season contest in purple and gold was a major success as he shot a perfect 12-of-12 from the field to finish with 26 points, nine rebounds and two steals in the Lakers’ blowout win over the Warriors. Kessler became the second Lakers player to have a perfect shooting night on at least 12 shot attempts, joining Wilt Chamberlain in 1969. And the big man was in agreement that his debut lived up to the hype.
“Yeah, I would say it did,” Kessler said after the win. “It was awesome. Got the win, which was the most important thing. Definitely was a little nervous going into the game, but just so thankful and so grateful for how it went.”
What stood out was Kessler’s chemistry his backcourt teammates Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. Ten of Kessler’s 12 made field goals were dunks set up by his teammates, as he was rewarded for setting good screens, rolling hard to the basket, and running the floor in transition. And Kessler had a ton of praise for his teammates overall for setting him up and finding him in the right spots on the court.
“I’m extremely thankful,” he said. “Playing with the guys on our team, I wish I could say it was really difficult. But they’re just so good, they’re court vision is insane. So they know my advantage is my height, so they found me in the right spots.”
When Kessler was asked what he saw that made him so comfortable, he again shifted the credit to his teammates.
“I mean, it’s not what I saw. That’s what Luka [Doncic] and AR (Austin Reaves) and all the other guys saw throwing me the ball, honestly,” he added. “Again, I wish I could tell you I did something crazy, but I think just being in the right spots, and being vertical and just trying to dunk everything. That’s really the biggest thing is having the attitude and mentality to try to dunk everything.”
Kessler undoubtedly benefitted from playing with Doncic and Reaves as he has never been teammates with playmakers of this caliber. The big man stands to score a ton of easy baskets just by doing his job well and that was on full display in the first game of the season. The chemistry still needs to grow more, but things are off to a great start.
The Lakers targeted Kessler as the ideal big man to pair with Doncic, in particular, and it is hard to argue with that assessment so far, and it should only get better from here.
Luka Doncic believes pick-and-roll chemistry with Walker Kessler will grow
Doncic has spoken about his chemistry with Kessler already, prior to the start of the regular season and the Lakers superstar made it clear that he believes the more reps the two have on the court together, the better their pick-and-roll will be.
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